Building a Better Boosted Top Tagger

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new family of jet substructure observables based on energy correlation functions that significantly improve the performance of boosted top quark tagging at the LHC.

Contribution

The paper develops a systematic approach to constructing jet observables and introduces a new discriminant family that outperforms existing methods like N-subjettiness.

Findings

New energy correlation function-based discriminants outperform N-subjettiness.

Systematic power counting provides insights into observable performance.

Enhanced top tagging efficiency at the LHC.

Abstract

Distinguishing hadronically decaying boosted top quarks from massive QCD jets is an important challenge at the Large Hadron Collider. In this paper we use the power counting method to study jet substructure observables designed for top tagging, and gain insight into their performance. We introduce a powerful new family of discriminants formed from the energy correlation functions which outperform the widely used N-subjettiness. These observables take a highly non-trivial form, demonstrating the importance of a systematic approach to their construction.